Chess

Nigel Short has made a bad start in Dos Hermanas, Spain, where he is back in contention against many of the world's top players. In the first round, he lost to Boris Gelfand in the only game not to end in a draw. With a field including Karpov, Kramnik, Anand, Topalov and Polgar, the event will provide a good guide to the form of those grandmasters jostling for second place in the world rankings behind Garry Kasparov.

Gelfand's plan of first creating a distraction by weakening b6, then getting on with the main business of attacking down the h-file, is a model of how such positions should be played. The strategy began to reap its rewards with 30.Qh2! when 30...cxd3 31.Rxh6 would leave Black helpless against an invasion of White's major pieces. At the end, an exchange of queens leaves the white g-pawn romping home to victory.